2017 News

Your support helped feed people like Agor

Friday, 15 December 2017

Your support of the South Sudan Famine Appeal helped feed people like Agor and her children.

Agor is the first wife of Mr. Majok. She has a total of six children and just recently had her last-born, Majok. In addition to raising her children, she also has the responsibility of taking care of the children of Adut, Mr Majok’s second wife who has another six children. Adut left her husband and children one day with no word. Agor believes that the situation at home of limited food was too much for her handle and therefore she went to Sudan in search of work opportunities. Agor now has the responsibility of taking care of all 12 children.

The responsibility of raising 12 children is no easy task. Her husband, Mr. Majok, has not been home for one year and five months. He left to join the army when Majok was born. He is a soldier in Bentiu, which is in Unity State. They haven’t communicated since.

With Northern Bahr el Ghazal, classified as Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 and IPC 4 for the last year, the food security situation has been grave with the people needing urgent humanitarian assistance as per the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), World Food Programme (WFP) and United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report in 2016. Agor and her children were in dire need of food aid before Christian Aid intervened.

Fortunately, she was selected to receive three cash vouchers, which enabled her to access food at the local market at an agreed and negotiated price. The selection criteria targeted the most remote and most vulnerable people with a specific focus on women and children. The community leaders were involved in the selection process.

“Before Christian Aid supported us, we used to eat wild leaves,” she said. When possible, she would go to the nearby market and look for odd jobs to do. She would gather wild grass and knit them together to form panels that could be used to make fences. These she would sell at 100 SSP.

Wild Leaves – Photo credit: Andreea Campeanu

“Some days were hard and we would go with one meal a day for three days eating no more than wild leaves. It was at this time that Angar and Mathiing became highly malnourished,” she said this pointing at her children. “The food acquired through the cash vouchers we received helped us and restored our health significantly. You can see the difference now.”

The cash vouchers allowed Agor and her family to acquire Sorghum and cooking oil. Each voucher lasted one month. In her view, the help came in a very timely manner—when she was in dire need of help. Despite the responsibility she currently has of raising 12 children, she is confident she will get by somehow.

Agor would like to extend her sincere gratitude and appreciation to the people that made the cash vouchers possible. Without it she and her family would surely have faced starvation.

Your support of the South Sudan Famine appeal helped people like Agor and her Children. Thank you so much for your generosity.

This story is from ACT Alliance partner (Christian Aid) from Northern Bar el Ghazal – the region where GMP has some of its projects. In response some emergency situations GMP works through ACT Alliance to direct support through well-established networks and other ACT Alliance partners. This is a way to ensure our response is fast, effective and that the response of many organisations is well coordinated to work together for the best outcome for those affected by disasters.